2023 Energy in Emerging Markets Case Competition

In partnership with

and

Interested in business solutions to off-grid energy access in Africa? Watch finalists in the 11th annual competition present their business models supporting electricity access in Nigeria — and enjoy a networking lunch with the judges.

Join the 5 finalist teams from York University, IESE Business School, University of Colorado at Boulder, Cambridge Judge Business School, and Kellogg School of Management, and expert judges from the energy industry, academia and Okra (this year’s contest partner) for the Final Round of the competition on November 7th from 8 am – 3 pm at Fuqua School of Business. Breakfast and lunch will be provided! Limited spots for the networking lunch are available—register to save your spot!

The annual competition sees student teams competing for $15k in prizes across 3 rounds to propose innovative business based solutions to a real problem faced by a partner company, Okra Solar, a company whose mesh-grid products have energized 14,000+ individuals and have the goal of bringing affordable, reliable, and productive energy access to all. Okra provides Internet-of-Things enabled hardware and software to help developers profitably energize remote last-mile communities.

Part of Energy Week at Duke, the competition is organized by the MBA Energy Club at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and is sponsored by the Energy Club’s generous Sponsors and the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke. The program engages graduate students from across the globe to solve clean energy access challenges in emerging economies.

Agenda

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8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

Coffee and Breakfast Bar

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9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Opening Remarks

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9:30 a.m. - 10:05 a.m.

Team 1 Presentation

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10:05 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.

Break

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10:20 a.m. - 10:55 a.m.

Team 2 Presentation

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10:55 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Team 3 Presentation

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10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

Break

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11:45 a.m. - 12:25 p.m.

Team 4 Presentation

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12:25 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Team 5 Presentation

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1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Networking Lunch

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2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Announcing Winners and Closing Remarks

Panel of Judges

Below are the judges for the Final Round of the case competition. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet them in person and network during lunch.

Kisa Giebink

Team Lead- Project Finance & Business Development

Okra Solar

Dr. Luana Lima

Associate Director for Educational Programs

Nicholas Institute

Mara Kingsley

Vice President, Communications

The AES Corporation

Omer Bomba Mohammed

Managing Partner

Veritas Consulting

Bio

Kisa works with Okra Solar on their commercial team, supporting customers to structure their projects and seek investments to increase their Okra meshgrid projects. Kisa’s background is in project finance and investment in North America and Asia.

Bio

Dr. Luana Marangon Lima is an assistant professor of the practice for energy and environmental analytics at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and she is the Associate Director for Educational Programs at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability. She received her Ph.D. in operations research and industrial engineering from the Cockrell School of Engineering at University of Texas at Austin (2011). She holds a M.Sc. (2007) and B.Sc. (2005) in electrical engineering from Universidade Federal de Itajuba (Brazil). Her research and teaching focus on optimization methods and data analytics applications to energy systems—more specifically, renewable energy integration, electricity markets, power generation planning and scheduling, and transmission and distribution grid regulation.

Bio

Mara Kingsley joins us from AES, a global company committed to accelerating the future of energy and the leading global provider of renewable energy to corporations. Mara has been with AES for 16 years and currently serves as its Chief Marketing Officer focused on supporting the company’s growth efforts as it delivers the greener, smarter solutions its customers and the world need. Prior to AES, she held a number of roles in communications, marketing and sales in the technology industry. Mara is a graduate of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.

Bio

Omer Bomba Mohammed is the Managing Partner of Veritas Consulting, an Ethiopia focused management consultancy. He presently leads a Veritas initiated project to pilot and scale productive use anchored mini-grids in small-holder horticulture farming communities, an accelerator for energy startups, EV fleet transitions, and C&I energy solutions. Prior to Veritas, Omer served as a Fund Manager for an agribusiness venture fund, and as the lead private initiatives advisor at UNDP Ethiopia. Before his return to Ethiopia in 2010, Omer started his professional career in the financial services sector in New York working across distressed debt, equity, and mutual fund securities. Omer earned his MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School, an MSc in Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics, and his bachelors from Albright College.

Tim Profeta

Senior Fellow

Nicholas Institute

Luc Severi

Programme Manager

Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll)

Nick Valby

Associate

Marathon Capital

Bio

Tim Profeta is a senior fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and associate professor of the practice at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy. In 2023, Profeta returned to Duke from two years of service at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as the special counsel for the power sector and a senior advisor. Prior to leaving for EPA, Profeta was the founding director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, which merged with the Duke University Energy Initiative in 2021 to create the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. As Director, Profeta was instrumental in launching the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project, among many other efforts.

Bio

Luc is a Belgian international development manager. He graduated in 2008 from the KULeuven as Master in Commercial Engineering, and in 2009 as Master in Development Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Starting in 2009, he spent 3 years working in Mozambique and Senegal in the sector of renewable energy solutions for rural households. In July 2012, he started working for Save the Children in Liberia, managing multiple country-wide health and education projects. After 5 years of work experience in field-based positions, he continue working on accelerating energy access for the hardest to reach and most-vulnerable communities and groups, including for off-grid health facilities, refugee settings, and last-mile communities, under Sustainable Energy for All’s energy access portfolio.

Bio

Nick Valby is an Associate at Marathon Capital. He interned with Marathon as a Summer Associate in 2022, and with ARPA-E on the Tech-to-Market team in 2021. He graduated this May with a Master of Environmental Management from Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business.

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